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A Time For Singing
''A Time for Singing'' is a musical with music by John Morris, lyrics by Gerald Freedman and John Morris, and a book by Freedman and Morris. The work was based on Richard Llewellyn's novel of a Welsh mining village, ''How Green Was My Valley''. The show takes place in the memory of Protestant minister David Griffith, recalling conflict within the Morgan family over the possible formation of a miners' union within the village, and the romance between Griffith himself and Angharad of the Morgans, who ultimately marries the mine owner instead. The show starred Ivor Emmanuel (as David Griffith), Tessie O'Shea, Shani Wallis and Laurence Naismith. The original Broadway production began a series of ten previews at The Broadway Theatre on May 12, 1966, and opened officially on May 21, 1966, running for a total of only 41 performances. It closed on June 25, 1966. An Alexander H. Cohen production, it has been called "probably the best musical he ever produced." Cohen used an "extravagant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Morris (composer)
John Leonard Morris (October 18, 1926 – January 25, 2018) was an American film, television, and Broadway composer, dance arranger, conductor, and trained concert pianist. He collaborated with filmmakers Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder. Early life John Morris was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey to Thomas Morris, an engineer who designed revolving doors for the Tiffany & Co. flagship store in Fifth Avenue, and Helen Sherratt, a homemaker. He became interested in music as early as three years old when he started learning to play the piano and visiting friends in The Bronx with his parents. His family moved to Independence, Kansas while he was young, and Morris continued studying piano. By the late 1940s, he moved back to New York City, where he studied at both Juilliard School and at The New School for Social Research. Career From the 1950s through the 1970s, Morris helped to compose incidental music and dance numbers for a number of Broadway productions, including ''Wildcat'' (1960), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Les Misérables (musical)
''Les Misérables'' ( , ), colloquially known as ''Les Mis'' or ''Les Miz'' ( ), is a sung-through musical and an adaptation of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel of the same name, by Claude-Michel Schönberg (music), Alain Boublil, Jean-Marc Natel (original French lyrics) and Herbert Kretzmer (English lyrics). The original French musical premiered in Paris in 1980 with direction by Robert Hossein. Its English-language adaptation by producer Cameron Mackintosh has been running in London since October 1985, making it the longest-running musical in the West End and the second longest-running musical in the world after the original Off-Broadway run of ''The Fantasticks''. Set in early 19th-century France, ''Les Misérables'' is the story of Jean Valjean, a French peasant, and his desire for redemption, released in 1815 after serving nineteen years in jail for stealing a loaf of bread for his sister's starving child. Valjean decides to break his parole and start his life anew after a bishop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musicals Based On Novels
Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like opera and dance, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music as compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements. Since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals. Although music has been a part of dramatic presentations since ancient times, modern Western musical theatre emerged during the 19th century, with many structural elements established by the works of Gilbert and Sullivan in Britain and those of Harrigan and Hart in America. These were followed by the numerous Edwardian musical comedies and the musical theatre wor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Broadway Musicals
Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the 144 extant and extinct Broadway venues use (used) the spelling ''Theatre'' as the proper noun in their names (12 others used neither), with many performers and trade groups for live dramatic presentations also using the spelling ''theatre''. or Broadway, are the theatrical performances presented in the 41 professional theatres, each with 500 or more seats, located in the Theater District and the Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Broadway and London's West End theatre, West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world. While the thoroughfare is eponymous with the district and its collection of 41 theaters, and it is also closely identified with Times Square, only three of the theaters are located on Broadway itself (nam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Playbill
''Playbill'' is an American monthly magazine for theatergoers. Although there is a subscription issue available for home delivery, most copies of ''Playbill'' are printed for particular productions and distributed at the door as the show's program. ''Playbill'' was first printed in 1884 for a single theater on 21st Street in New York City. The magazine is now used at nearly every Broadway theatre, as well as many Off-Broadway productions. Outside New York City, ''Playbill'' is used at theaters throughout the United States. As of September 2012, its circulation was 4,073,680. History What is known today as ''Playbill'' started in 1884, when Frank Vance Strauss founded the New York Theatre Program Corporation specializing in printing theater programs. Strauss reimagined the concept of a theater program, making advertisements a standard feature and thus transforming what was then a leaflet into a fully designed magazine. The new format proved popular with theatergoers, who s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Keating (musician)
John Keating (10 September 1927 – 28 May 2015) was a Scottish musician, songwriter, arranger and trombonist. Biography Keating was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. After studying piano and trombone, he taught himself how to arrange and compose in his teens. From 1952, he worked with British big band leader Ted Heath as a trombonist, but within two years Heath asked him to become his primary arranger. In the early 1960s, he and songwriter Johnny Worth (writing as Les Vandyke) masterminded the career of a minor British pop star, Eden Kane. The team wrote and produced a string of British top 10 hits for Kane in 1961–63. In addition he wrote, produced or arranged hits by Adam Faith, Petula Clark, Anthony Newley, Shani Wallis, Caterina Valente, and Sammy Davis Jr. among others. Keating arranged and conducted a series of albums for London Records' Phase 4 series, notable for its use of synthesiser technology such as the Moog synthesizer and the EMS VCS 3. The records were often us ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reprise Records
Reprise Records is an American record label founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Warner Records, one of its flagship labels. Artists currently signed to Reprise Records include Enya, Michael Bublé, Eric Clapton, Stevie Nicks, Neil Young, Deftones, Mastodon (band), Mastodon, Lindsey Buckingham, Josh Groban, Disturbed (band), Disturbed, Idina Menzel, My Chemical Romance, Gerard Way, Green Day, Dwight Yoakam, and Never Shout Never. Company history Beginnings Reprise Records was formed in 1960 by Frank Sinatra in order to allow more artistic freedom for his own recordings. Soon thereafter, he garnered the nickname "The Chairman of the Board". Because of dissatisfaction with Capitol Records, and after trying to buy Norman Granz's Verve Records, the first album Sinatra released on Reprise was ''Ring-a-Ding-Ding!'' As CEO of Reprise, Sinatra recruited several artists for the fledgling label, such as fellow Rat Pack members Dean Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a leader in record sales, radio ratings, and motion picture grosses from 1926 to 1977. He made over 70 feature films and recorded more than 1,600 songs. His early career coincided with recording innovations that allowed him to develop an intimate singing style that influenced many male singers who followed, such as Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Dean Martin, Dick Haymes, Elvis Presley, and John Lennon. ''Yank'' magazine said that he was "the person who had done the most for the morale of overseas servicemen" during World War II. In 1948, American polls declared him the "most admired man alive", ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII. In 1948, ''Music Digest'' estimated that his recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerald Bordman
Gerald Martin Bordman (September 18, 1931 – May 9, 2011) was an American theatre historian, best known for authoring the reference volume ''The American Musical Theatre'', first published in 1978.Simonson, Robert (12 May 2011)Gerald Bordman, Theatre Scholar, Dies at 79 ''Playbill''Glover, William (11 January 1979)Showbiz addict compiles handbook on musical theater ''Eugene Register-Guard'' (Associated Press story) In reviewing an updated version of ''American Musical Theatre'' in 2011, ''Playbill'' wrote that the book had "altered the scope of American musical theatre history" and "remained the only book of its kind, and an invaluable one." Bordman grew up in the Wynnefield neighborhood of Philadelphia and graduated from Central High School and Lafayette College, later earning a master's degree and Ph.D. in medieval literature at the University of Pennsylvania. He published ''The American Musical Theatre'' four years after selling the family's business, Excell Chemical Products ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand Hotel (musical)
''Grand Hotel'' is a musical with a book by Luther Davis, music and lyrics by Robert Wright and George Forrest, and additional music and lyrics by Maury Yeston. Based on Vicki Baum's 1929 novel, its eponymous spin-off play, ''Menschen im Hotel'' (People in a Hotel), and the subsequent 1932 MGM feature film, the musical focuses on events taking place over the course of a weekend in an elegant hotel in 1928 Berlin and the intersecting stories of the eccentric guests of the hotel, including a fading prima ballerina; a fatally ill Jewish bookkeeper, who wants to spend his final days living in luxury; a young, handsome, but destitute Baron; a cynical doctor; an honest businessman gone bad, and a typist dreaming of Hollywood success. The show's 1989 Broadway production garnered 12 Tony Award nominations, winning five, including best direction and choreography for Tommy Tune. Big-name cast replacements, including Cyd Charisse and Zina Bethune, helped the show become the first Ame ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander H
Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Aleksander and Aleksandr. Related names and diminutives include Iskandar, Alec, Alek, Alex, Alexandre (given name), Alexandre, Aleks (given name), Aleks, Aleksa (given name), Aleksa and Sander (name), Sander; feminine forms include Alexandra, Alexandria (given name), Alexandria, and Sasha (name), Sasha. Etymology The name ''Alexander'' originates from the (; 'defending men' or 'protector of men'). It is a compound of the verb (; 'to ward off, avert, defend') and the noun (, genetive, genitive: , ; meaning 'man'). It is an example of the widespread motif of Greek names expressing "battle-prowess", in this case the ability to withstand or push back an enemy shield wall, battle line. The earliest Attested langua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerald Freedman
Gerald Alan Freedman (June 25, 1927 – March 17, 2020) was an American theatre director, librettist, and lyricist, and a college dean. Life and career Freedman was born in Lorain, Ohio, the son of Fannie (Sepenswol), a history teacher, and Barnie B. Freedman, a dentist. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants. He was educated at Northwestern University under Alvina Krause and others. He earned both BA and MA degrees there. He began his career as assistant director of such projects as '' Bells Are Ringing'', ''West Side Story'', and ''Gypsy''. His first credit as a Broadway director was the 1961 musical ''The Gay Life''. Additional Broadway credits include the 1964 and 1980 revivals of ''West Side Story'', ''The Incomparable Max'' (1971), Arthur Miller's ''The Creation of the World and Other Business'' (1972), the 1975 and 1976 productions of '' The Robber Bridegroom'', both of which garnered him Drama Desk Award nominations as Outstanding Director of a Musical, ''The Grand T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
